The Indians made an announcement and a flurry of roster moves before the game on May 3.
Indians manager Terry Francona announced Josh Tomlin will replace deposed starter Carlos Carrasco in the Indians’ rotation. Tomlin will be recalled from Triple-A Columbus and will make his first start May 6 against Minnesota.
Tomlin has pitched 20 consecutive scoreless innings at Columbus, including his last start, on May 1, against Durham, in which he pitched a three-hit shutout, with 10 strikeouts and no walks in a 3-0 Columbus victory. In five starts overall, Tomlin is 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA.
“His last two outings have been really good, and (May 6) is his day to pitch. He also pitched really well in spring training,” said Francona, who said Trevor Bauer (3-0 with a 1.40 ERA, in five starts) and left-hander T.J. House (1-1 with a 1.59 ERA in four starts) were also considered.
Also May 3, utilityman Elliot Johnson, who struck out twice and made two errors playing second base May 2, was designated for assignment.
“That had nothing to do with it,” said Francona of Johnson’s two-error game.
Johnson appeared in seven games and hit .105 (2-for-19).
Catcher Yan Gomes has left the team and been placed on the three-day paternity list. His wife Jenna gave birth to the couple’s first child, a daughter named Brooklyn Mae, in the morning of May 3 at a suburban Cleveland hospital.
To cover for the loss of Gomes, the Indians recalled veteran catcher George Kottarras from Columbus, where he hit .080 (2-for-25).
The Indians have also recalled left-handed reliever Nick Hagadone from Columbus, where in 10 appearances he was 1-2 with a 3.97 ERA.
Francona said Kottaras will probably be returned to Columbus when Gomes rejoins the Indians.Upon further review
Major League Baseball’s new replay system is 1 month old, and while the reviews have been mixed, Indians general manager Chris Antonetti says he likes it.
“I think it’s an improvement over what we had a year ago,” said Antonetti. “Nobody expected it to be a perfect system right away. I think it will continue to improve over the next three years.”
The Indians have had some reviewed plays go against them, when the replays seemed to show that shouldn’t have happened, but Antonetti said he’s willing to ride out the bumps in the road on the way to what MLB feels will be a much improved system.
“It’s a work in progress,” said Antonetti. “But on balance, I think the replay system we have this year puts the game in a much better position than it was last year.”Numbers game
The Indians are the only team in the majors that has not played an extra-inning game in 2014. Also, entering the weekend, only the Diamondbacks (minus-62) and Astros (minus-54) had a worse run differential than the Indians (minus-26).Clutch much?
The Cardinals hit a record .330 with men in scoring position last year with five of the top six in the league in that department (Allen Craig, Matt Holliday, Matt Carpenter, Yadier Molina, and Carlos Beltran). This year the Cardinals are hitting .226 with runners in scoring position, and they also recently went without a home run for 10-plus games and 366 at-bats. Who leads the Cardinals in home runs? Jhonny Peralta, of course, with seven, even though he’s hitting only .208.Gulp!
Texas is on the hook for $138 million owed to Prince Fielder through the 2020 season, but the Rangers may be feeling nervous about that right now.
In April, Fielder had personal lows for batting average (.206) and slugging percentage (.314) in a month and matched his monthly worst for home runs with two. For only the third time in his career, Fielder drove in fewer than 10 runs in a month.The K-Club
Cliff Lee has 13 career games in which he’s had double-digit strikeout totals with no walks. The only major-leaguers with more are Randy Johnson (36), Curt Schilling (27), Roger Clemens (21) and Pedro Martinez (18).
Then there’s Giants first baseman Brandon Belt, who was 0-for-12 with nine strikeouts in the series against the Indians and had 10 K’s in a 0-for-16 slump. “I’ve got to take that bat away from him. It’s got a big hole in it,” said manager Bruce Bochy,The rain game
You have to love April weather. The Twins enjoyed an All-Star break in April. They were rained out on April 27, had an off day on April 28 and were rained out on April 29.
The Phillies were off on April 28 and May 1 and were rained out on April 29.Blue Yu
Texas ace Yu Darvish is 1-7 with a 4.73 ERA in nine career starts vs. AL West rival Oakland.
“They have a really good game plan against me,” said Darvish.The hit men
Alfonso Soriano needs seven more hits in the AL to join Orlando Cabrera, Vladimir Guerrero, Carlos Lee, Fred McGriff, Frank Robinson and Dave Winfield as the only players to register at least 1,000 hits in both leagues.Go figure
The Padres are by far the lowest-scoring team in the majors, but also the only team to beat so far this season to beat Max Scherzer. Scherzer on April 13 at San Diego: Five innings, four earned runs. Scherzer in his other six starts this season: 34 innings, five earned runs.The record shop
The Blue Jays set a major-league record April 27 when they started six Dominican-born players (Jose Bautista, Melky Cabrera, Edwin Encarnacion, Juan Francisco, Jose Reyes and Moises Sierra) in a game against the Red Sox.